Localizzare vuol dire tradurre? Il caso dei videogiochi

This paper reviews current academic literature investigating videogame localisation and illustrates a case study. The academic interest in videogame localization is increasing thanks to the growth of the digital entertainment industry, which is nowadays a huge global business. In such a context, localisation is an essential phase in the development of a videogame: almost every publisher needs to sell videogames in more languages at the same time, in order to reach as many markets as possible. Tightly intertwined with the internationalisation, the adaptation to the target market turns out to be a key element for the success of the videogame in a foreign market. Consequently, localisers and their creativity play an active role in granting such success. Through a short analysis of this complex process, which differs from the localisation of the other types of software and is sometimes referred to as transcreation, this paper aims to present its main aspects, also through some examples taken from a case study.